PostDoc position at the DAI-Labor of the Technische Universität Berlin
Reference number FO-290
At the Technische Universität Berlin, the DAI-Labor (www.dai-labor.de) and the chair “Agent Technologies in Business Applications and Telecommunications” under the leadership of Prof. Dr.-Ing. … read more. “Job: PostDoc position at the DAI-Labor of the Technische Universität Berlin”
[From The Guardian]
Extraordinary Measures
Belsay Hall, Northumberland
Laura Cumming
The Observer, Sunday 2 May 2010
The beautiful room is empty. The atmosphere is tense and cold, even though the sun glows beyond the high windows. You open the door to leave, only to find another door before you – and through it a further surprise. In the next room sits a naked man, flinching and clutching at his wooden stool as if terrified by your sudden arrival.
This is what strikes first: the sense that he was waiting there in fear, perhaps even listening out for your footsteps. Which is a most extraordinary illusion, to be sure. For the figure that confronts you in the library is very nearly 10ft tall and quite clearly blind and insentient, being one of Ron Mueck‘s stupendous hyperreal sculptures.… read more. “Perceptual illusions at Extraordinary Measures art exhibit”
CFP: Theme Issue on Personal Projection in Journal of Personal and Ubiquitous Computing
http://eis.comp.lancs.ac.uk/workshops/ubiproject2010/call.html
Mobile projection interfaces are no longer fiction. Integrated pico projectors in mobile and wearable devices could make mobile projection ubiquitous within the next few years. Walls, desks, or t-shirts will act as projection surfaces for these kinds of new devices. Several projector phones (mobile phones with built-in projectors) are already commercially available, with additional phones either demonstrated or announced. It is expected that such projector phones will be integrated into many of the next generation mobile handsets. Furthermore, we have seen the first research towards the integration of pico projectors and cameras into various wearable systems, such as pendants or headsets, leading to new form factors, interaction techniques and applications. These mobile projection and camera units have great potential to overcome limitations of mobile and wearable devices, especially their limited input- and output capabilities.… read more. “Call: Theme issue on Personal Projection in Journal of Personal and Ubiquitous Computing”
[From Southern Methodist University; a 3:35 minute video report is here]
Practicing assertiveness skills on virtual-reality “dates” may help women prevent sexual victimization
Posted in Mind & Brain on June 3, 2010
It’s a stormy night when a young man offers a young college woman a ride home. First he makes friendly small-talk. But then he becomes sexually aggressive and angry.
Can she get out of this situation without getting hurt?
While this could be a real experience for many women, in this case it’s virtual reality. The purpose is role-playing in a psychology laboratory at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.… read more. “Practicing assertiveness skills on virtual-reality “dates” may help women prevent sexual victimization”
May 26, 2010
NAB SHOW PARTNERS WITH TELEPRESENCEWORLD FOR 2011 SHOW
TelepresenceWorld at NAB Show to feature telepresence and telecollaborative design technology
WASHINGTON, DC — The NAB Show and Hemisphere Expo Services, Inc. have joined forces to launch TelepresenceWorld at NAB Show, the organizations announced today. The partnership brings the top telepresence event into the world’s largest digital media and entertainment event for the 2011 NAB Show in Las Vegas, April 9-14.
Telepresence technologies allow organizations to conduct business globally, providing an immersive environment and an interactive experience similar to being in the same room. It allows business and content professionals to interact via high quality video imaging and crystal clear audio from multiple locations. Specialized telepresence solutions for specific industries already exist, for settings as diverse as pharmaceutical research labs, movie and television studios, university-level distance learning, and neurological operating rooms.… read more. “Call: National Association of Broadcasters partners with TelepresenceWorld for 2011 show”
[From The Seattle Times]
Future of display is here: Latest tech visions for touch screens, monitors of next-Gen gadgets
Brier Dudley
Seattle Times staff columnist
Talk about gazing into the future.
Imagine ultra high-definition TVs not much thicker than a millimeter.
How about electronic books made with plastic screens that flex like a magazine?
Or perhaps a display that lets you touch a virtual version of yourself on the other side of the glass?
The technology to build these crazy new gadgets is being shown in Seattle this week during Display Week, the Society for Information Display conference.
A combination science fair and industry bazaar, the event is drawing 6,000 people from most of the companies developing TVs, monitors, touch screens, electronic books and cellphone screens.… read more. “Display Week: Latest tech visions”
Registration and abstract submission is now open for our third National Workshop on Immersive Worlds event hosted by the Learning Innovation Group at Coventry University. The Big Issues in Immersive Virtual Worlds workshop is being held on November 4 2010 at the Techno Centre, Coventry University Technology Park.
Submission deadline: September 3rd
The themes of the day are as follows:
Research and issues with –
[From 1UP.com (“Where Gamers Call Home”)]
New Company to Make Full Body Exoskeleton Game Controller
XIO will debut at E3, offering movement tracking and physical feedback.
By Frank Cifaldi, 06/03/2010
In 2006, Nintendo’s Wii stripped down the concept of a virtual reality interface to an affordable plastic peripheral, finally bringing the VR promise of the early 90s into the home. Microsoft is simplifying things even further this year with Project Natal, which takes away controllers entirely in favor of a camera that senses your body’s movement. But Forcetek USA, a new player in the game interface market, wants to bring virtual reality back to its roots, by developing a range of devices that will cover your entire body and sense your every movement.
Yes, that’s right. Forcetek wants to bring a full-body exoskeleton suit into your home.… read more. “New company to make full body exoskeleton game controller”
[From MIT’s Technology Review Invited Guests blog]
Friday, May 28, 2010
The Challenges of Virtual Hairstyling
New system uses haptics to allow designers to comb hair just like they would in real life.
By Christopher Mims
Imagine that you had to design a virtual hairstyle by painstakingly defining the position and shape of every single hair on a character’s head. It sounds like a joke, but modeling hair in this way – with a heaping helping of post-processing for added realism – remains the industry standard for creating virtual 3D hairstyles.
If you were an animator at Pixar or Dreamworks, for your own sanity you might avoid hair all together – say, by putting your characters in hats. How else to explain the higher-than-expected frequency of baldness among recognizable computer-animated heroes?
Work from Ugo Bonanni and colleagues at MIRALab at the University of Geneva promises to redress the sorry state of virtual hairstyling in the most intuitive and natural way possible: by using touch-sensitive, force-feedback technology – a.k.a.… read more. “New virtual hairstyling system uses haptics to allow designers to comb hair just like they would in real life”
Invitation to a full day workshop at NordiCHI2010, Reykjavik, Iceland on
Crisis management training: design and use of online worlds
Jointly organised by IFIP 13.6 HWID and the FP7 CRISIS project.
Contacts
Rikke Orngreen (rior at dpu.dk) or Chris Rooney (c.rooney at mdx.ac.uk)
Workshop theme and goals
In this workshop, we will analyse and discuss empirical studies of interaction design methods for training crisis management in safety critical, emergency and disaster situations. The workshop theme is thus narrow in a contextual way (by dealing with unusual situations); but broad in the sense that we wish to discuss various experiences to form an understanding of current practice, and how people adapt and learn to act in new (often extreme) situations. Online worlds (which include simulations, virtual environments, augmented reality and massive multiplayer games) have potential to aid in training staff to deal with crisis situations.… read more. “Call: Crisis management training: Design and use of online worlds (NordiCHI2010 workshop)”
